dictionary definitions for "blue"


From WordNet (r) 2.0 (August 2003) [wn]:

  blue
      adj 1: having a color similar to that of a clear unclouded sky;
             "October's bright blue weather"- Helen Hunt Jackson;
             "a blue flame"; "blue haze of tobacco smoke" [syn:
             bluish, blueish, light-blue, dark-blue,
             blue-black]
      2: used to signify the Union forces in the Civil War (who wore
         blue uniforms); "a ragged blue line"
      3: low in spirits; "lonely and blue in a strange city";
         "depressed by the loss of his job"; "a dispirited and
         resigned expression on her face"; "downcast after his
         defeat"; "feeling discouraged and downhearted" [syn:
         depressed, dispirited, {down(p)}, downcast,
         downhearted, down in the mouth, low, low-spirited]
         
      4: characterized by profanity or cursing; "foul-mouthed and
         blasphemous"; "blue language"; "profane words" [syn:
         blasphemous, profane]
      5: suggestive of sexual impropriety; "a blue movie"; "blue
         jokes"; "he skips asterisks and gives you the gamy
         details"; "a juicy scandal"; "a naughty wink"; "naughty
         words"; "racy anecdotes"; "a risque story"; "spicy gossip"
          [syn: gamy, gamey, juicy, naughty, racy,
         risque, spicy]
      6: belonging to or characteristic of the nobility or
         aristocracy; "an aristocratic family"; "aristocratic
         Bostonians"; "aristocratic government"; "a blue family";
         "blue blood"; "the blue-blooded aristocracy"; "of gentle
         blood"; "patrician landholders of the American South";
         "aristocratic bearing"; "aristocratic features";
         "patrician tastes" [syn: aristocratic, aristocratical,
          blue-blooded, gentle, patrician]
      7: morally rigorous and strict; "blue laws"; "the puritan work
         ethic"; "puritanic distaste for alcohol"; "she was
         anything but puritanical in her behavior" [syn: {blue(a)},
          puritan, puritanic, puritanical]
      8: causing dejection; "a blue day"; "the dark days of the war";
         "a week of rainy depressing weather"; "a disconsolate
         winter landscape"; "the first dismal dispiriting days of
         November"; "a dark gloomy day"; "grim rainy weather" [syn:
          dark, depressing, disconsolate, dismal,
         dispiriting, gloomy, grim]
      n 1: the color of the clear sky in the daytime; "he had eyes of
           bright blue" [syn: blueness]
      2: blue clothing; "she was wearing blue"
      3: any organization or party whose uniforms or badges are blue;
         "the Union army was a vast blue"
      4: the sky as viewed during daylight; "he shot an arrow into
         the blue" [syn: blue sky, blue air, {wild blue
         yonder}]
      5: used to whiten laundry or hair or give it a bluish tinge
         [syn: bluing, blueing]
      6: the sodium salt of amobarbital that is used as a
         barbiturate; used as a sedative and a hypnotic [syn:
         amobarbital sodium, blue angel, blue devil,
         Amytal]
      7: any of numerous small chiefly blue butterflies of the family
         Lycaenidae
      v : turn blue

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Blue \Blue\ (bl[=u]), a. [Compar. Bluer (bl[=u]"[~e]r);
     superl. Bluest.] [OE. bla, blo, blew, blue, livid, black,
     fr. Icel.bl[=a]r livid; akin to Dan. blaa blue, Sw. bl[*a],
     D. blauw, OHG. bl[=a]o, G. blau; but influenced in form by F.
     bleu, from OHG. bl[=a]o.]
     1. Having the color of the clear sky, or a hue resembling it,
        whether lighter or darker; as, the deep, blue sea; as blue
        as a sapphire; blue violets. "The blue firmament."
        --Milton.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Pale, without redness or glare, -- said of a flame; hence,
        of the color of burning brimstone, betokening the presence
        of ghosts or devils; as, the candle burns blue; the air
        was blue with oaths.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. Low in spirits; melancholy; as, to feel blue.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     4. Suited to produce low spirits; gloomy in prospect; as,
        thongs looked blue. [Colloq.]
        [1913 Webster]
  
     5. Severe or over strict in morals; gloom; as, blue and sour
        religionists; suiting one who is over strict in morals;
        inculcating an impracticable, severe, or gloomy mortality;
        as, blue laws.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     6. Literary; -- applied to women; -- an abbreviation of
        bluestocking. [Colloq.]
        [1913 Webster]
  
              The ladies were very blue and well informed.
                                                    --Thackeray.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Blue asbestus. See Crocidolite.
  
     Blue black, of, or having, a very dark blue color, almost
        black.
  
     Blue blood. See under Blood.
  
     Blue buck (Zool.), a small South African antelope
        ({Cephalophus pygm[ae]us}); also applied to a larger
        species ({[AE]goceras leucoph[ae]us}); the blaubok.
  
     Blue cod (Zool.), the buffalo cod.
  
     Blue crab (Zool.), the common edible crab of the Atlantic
        coast of the United States (Callinectes hastatus).
  
     Blue curls (Bot.), a common plant ({Trichostema
        dichotomum}), resembling pennyroyal, and hence called also
        bastard pennyroyal.
  
     Blue devils, apparitions supposed to be seen by persons
        suffering with delirium tremens; hence, very low
        spirits. "Can Gumbo shut the hall door upon blue devils,
        or lay them all in a red sea of claret?" --Thackeray.
  
     Blue gage. See under Gage, a plum.
  
     Blue gum, an Australian myrtaceous tree ({Eucalyptus
        globulus}), of the loftiest proportions, now cultivated in
        tropical and warm temperate regions for its timber, and as
        a protection against malaria. The essential oil is
        beginning to be used in medicine. The timber is very
        useful. See Eucalyptus.
  
     Blue jack, Blue stone, blue vitriol; sulphate of copper.
        
  
     Blue jacket, a man-of war's man; a sailor wearing a naval
        uniform.
  
     Blue jaundice. See under Jaundice.
  
     Blue laws, a name first used in the eighteenth century to
        describe certain supposititious laws of extreme rigor
        reported to have been enacted in New Haven; hence, any
        puritanical laws. [U. S.]
  
     Blue light, a composition which burns with a brilliant blue
        flame; -- used in pyrotechnics and as a night signal at
        sea, and in military operations.
  
     Blue mantle (Her.), one of the four pursuivants of the
        English college of arms; -- so called from the color of
        his official robes.
  
     Blue mass, a preparation of mercury from which is formed
        the blue pill. --McElrath.
  
     Blue mold or Blue mould, the blue fungus ({Aspergillus
        glaucus}) which grows on cheese. --Brande & C.
  
     Blue Monday,
        (a) a Monday following a Sunday of dissipation, or itself
            given to dissipation (as the Monday before Lent).
        (b) a Monday considered as depressing because it is a
            workday in contrast to the relaxation of the weekend.
            
  
     Blue ointment (Med.), mercurial ointment.
  
     Blue Peter (British Marine), a blue flag with a white
        square in the center, used as a signal for sailing, to
        recall boats, etc. It is a corruption of blue repeater,
        one of the British signal flags.
  
     Blue pill. (Med.)
        (a) A pill of prepared mercury, used as an aperient, etc.
        (b) Blue mass.
  
     Blue ribbon.
        (a) The ribbon worn by members of the order of the Garter;
            -- hence, a member of that order.
        (b) Anything the attainment of which is an object of great
            ambition; a distinction; a prize. "These
            [scholarships] were the --blue ribbon of the college."
            --Farrar.
        (c) The distinctive badge of certain temperance or total
            abstinence organizations, as of the --Blue ribbon
            Army.
  
     Blue ruin, utter ruin; also, gin. [Eng. Slang] --Carlyle.
  
     Blue spar (Min.), azure spar; lazulite. See Lazulite.
  
     Blue thrush (Zool.), a European and Asiatic thrush
        (Petrocossyphus cyaneas).
  
     Blue verditer. See Verditer.
  
     Blue vitriol (Chem.), sulphate of copper, a violet blue
        crystallized salt, used in electric batteries, calico
        printing, etc.
  
     Blue water, the open ocean.
  
     Big Blue, the International Business Machines corporation.
        [Wall Street slang.] PJC
  
     To look blue, to look disheartened or dejected.
  
     True blue, genuine and thorough; not modified, nor mixed;
        not spurious; specifically, of uncompromising
        Presbyterianism, blue being the color adopted by the
        Covenanters.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              For his religion . . .
              'T was Presbyterian, true blue.       --Hudibras.
        [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Blue \Blue\ (bl[=u]), n.
     1. One of the seven colors into which the rays of light
        divide themselves, when refracted through a glass prism;
        the color of the clear sky, or a color resembling that,
        whether lighter or darker; a pigment having such color.
        Sometimes, poetically, the sky; as, to fly off into the
        blue.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. A pedantic woman; a bluestocking. [Colloq.]
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. pl. [Short for blue devils.] Low spirits; a fit of
        despondency; melancholy. [Colloq.]
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Berlin blue, Prussian blue.
  
     Mineral blue. See under Mineral.
  
     Prussian blue. See under Prussian.
        [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Blue \Blue\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Blued; p. pr. & vb. n.
     Bluing.]
     To make blue; to dye of a blue color; to make blue by
     heating, as metals, etc.
     [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Cod \Cod\, n. [Cf. G. gadde, and (in Heligoland) gadden, L.
     gadus merlangus.] (Zool.)
     An important edible fish (Gadus morrhua), taken in immense
     numbers on the northern coasts of Europe and America. It is
     especially abundant and large on the Grand Bank of
     Newfoundland. It is salted and dried in large quantities.
     [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: There are several varieties; as shore cod, from
           shallow water; bank cod, from the distant banks; and
           rock cod, which is found among ledges, and is often
           dark brown or mottled with red. The tomcod is a
           distinct species of small size. The bastard, blue,
           buffalo, or cultus cod of the Pacific coast belongs
           to a distinct family. See Buffalo cod, under
           Buffalo.
           [1913 Webster]
  
     Cod fishery, the business of fishing for cod.
  
     Cod line, an eighteen-thread line used in catching codfish.
        --McElrath.
        [1913 Webster]

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (19 Sep 2003) [foldoc]:

  Blue
  
     A language proposed by Softech to meet the DoD Ironman
     requirements which led to Ada.  ["On the BLUE Language
     Submitted to the DoD", E.W. Dijkstra, SIGPLAN Notices
     13(10):10-15 (Oct 1978)].
  


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